Saturday, February 2, 2013

For whatever reason, some Chinese authorities and academics feel very uncomfortable in admitting that non-Asian people - gasp - once settled and lived for thousands of years in an area that China claims for itself today, until those people (1) left (2) died off (or were killed off by the Han Chinese invaders) (3) were absorbed into some of the other Asian populations living around and in the area, which today continue to exhibit the genetic residue of their intermingling with these non-Asian people in the occasional blue-eyed, freckled child, the occasional blonde, the occasional redhead.

You have no doubt heard or read about the Tarim Basin mummies, the Beauty of Loulan, etc. These were fair-skinned, sometimes tall lanky people who wore tall pointed hats crafted from felt (think of a witch's hat), pointy-toed felt shoes soled in leather, and colorful, intricately and expertly woven plaid garments. They sometimes had blue eyes, sometimes had fair hair, sometimes had red hair. The women held powerful positions within the society, but it would be unfair to say it was matriarchal, as not enough is known about the people and their society to form a reasonable opinion. They often buried their dead in elaborately contructed tombs covered in wood, which as the years went by and climate change dessicated the areas they lived in, must have been nearly impossible to find. Access to the "mummies" of Urumchi and other remains of these distinctly non-Asian people discovered in the area over the years, is restricted. Seems the Chinese authorities don't want them to really be seen or closely studied. I do not believe any such restrictions are placed upon examination of much later dated Asian mummies discovered in and about the region.

Here's a general map of the Tarim Basin. You can see how it fits into western Asia and the far northwest of today's China. That same area of northwest China that is the home to a great deal of "ethnic" unrest and repression of the local populations by the regional Communist authorities with the blessing of the Central Government. In addition to mass purges of the locals, the Central Government has undertaken a continuing policy of flooding the area with Han Chinese settlers along with wholesale disposession of the locals of their property and land.

The Tarim Basin, showing ancient river beds. These rivers are almost always dry today. The change in the local climate started probably 5,000 - 4,500 years ago, and by 2000 BCE the area had grown increasingly hostile to supporting the people who had settled there. If I recall my history correctly, gradually the climate changes forced people further toward the east, toward the area around Lop Nor (Lop Nur on this map), and there they stayed for at least another 2000 years as the waters of the lake gradually shrunk until there was nearly nothing left. I understand (but could be mistaken about this) that it can flood seasonally and expand over quite an area, but one never knows if there will be water from year to year.

The far western Tien Shan, an extremely rugged, inhospitable mountainous region, was reputed to be the home of the fierce tiger-woman-goddess Xiang-mu, who over the years was "gentled down" to become the Queen Mother of the West, where the worthy dead went to spend their eternity in a Paradise of blue skies, mild weather, and abundant fruit and greenery. Does this remind you of another - a fierce lioness-woman-goddess who ruled over the Land of the Dead in the far western desert of ancient Egypt? Hathor (Hat-hert) was her name and she was also gentled down over thousands of years; eventually her attributes were absorbed into the Mother Goddess Isis.

It is with this background in mind that I read the following story. Note the location of the Pamirs on the map above and the reference in the article to a pass into the Pamir Mountains along the northern route of the Silk Road.

A 1,300-year-old [circa 700 CE] unidentified cluster of 102 tombs, 40 per cent of which were made for infants, have been unearthed in China's restive westernmost province.

The tombs, found on the Pamirs Plateau in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, contain wooden caskets with desiccated corpses, as well as stoneware, pottery and copper ware believed to have been buried as sacrificial items, said Ai Tao from the Xinjiang Archaeological Institute.

"The cluster covers an area of 1,500 square meters on a 20-meter-high cliff, an unusual location for tombs," Ai told state-run Xinhua news agency. [Having no idea how large an area 1,500 square meters is, I checked the math and did a conversion. 1 square meter = approximately 10.76 square feet; 1,500 square meters therefore = 16,140 square feet (10.76 x 1500).]

He added that his team was also very surprised to find such a large number of infant corpses.

Image from the Indian Express article. Interesting -- look at what appears to be brick structures surrounding the
graves. Why no mention of these in the article? What are they?

But further research is needed to determine why so many people from that tribe died young.

Archaeologists said they have also unearthed a large number of well-preserved utensils made from gourds, some of which were placed inside the caskets.

"The burial custom is the first of its kind to be found in Xinjiang," said Ai. [Poor - I mean, materially poor - people -- in the olden days they could afford to bury their dead with copper, brass and iron artifacts, as well as other precious objects, such as carved stone goods, semi-precious stones, herbs, even horses and saddles. Here, they buried their dead with things made from gourds. Geez. Of course today, at least in the West, we don't even send our dead to their graves with jewelry such as a wedding ring, and often even their gold fillings are removed, due to greed! I have read that even burial dresses and suits can now be rented, and after the funeral the deceased is stripped of the fine clothes and buried covered in a cheap sheet. Yeah, the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play pinnochel in your mouth...]

It is believed that the cluster dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

At that time, economic and cultural exchanges between China and the West flourished via the ancient Silk Road.

"The shape of the felt-covered caskets show that sinic culture had a great influence on the lives of local people's some 1,300 years ago," said Yu Zhiyong, head of the Xinjiang Archaeological Institute. [What a bunch of bunkum, FELT-COVERED CASKETS are western in origin -- just check out the burials from the Tarim Basin. Ha!] The tomb cluster was discovered amid the construction of a local hydropower project last year.

Kezilesu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture was an important pass on the ancient Silk Road.

*****************************************

My guess is that these are Tocharian graves, but who knows? As the Chinese authorities evidently have "infant corpses", they may be able to extract DNA and do an analysis. A body only 1300 years old could potentially yield good DNA to analyze. Now, will they do it? Who the hell knows? And if they do, will we ever hear of the results?

The Chinese authorities have a much more difficult problem trying to deny the existence of the Tocharians who occupied northwest China for several hundreds of years (500 years?) because their existence -- and written languages (Tocharian A and Tocharian B) are so well attested in historical accounts and archaeological remains, including many Chinese images of these white-skinned, round-eyed, large-nosed people in Chinese historical accounts.

The Tang Dynasty was a time of flowering in ancient China, a time of the rulers reaching out to other lands and peoples and inviting exchange. Today's China is, however, an altogether different creature than the Tang Dynasty. These graves might be considered an inconvenient discovery. The authorities could just let the evidence moulder away in an unprotected storeroom somewhere and hope looters take it all away; or perhaps encourage local looters (under cover, of course) to just take it all away with little to no questions asked.

Regarding what seems an unusually high number of infant coffins, well, look at the area they were buried in. On a mountainside cliff approximately 656 feet high. Now why would people put their dead up there? Maybe because they, ah, like -- you know, lived near by? Geez! Not exactly "hospitable" surroundings, heh? Perhaps 40% mortality seems high compared to the Chinese infant mortality rate today (but who actually knows what that is, as you can't trust the Chinese government to give factual figures). And, I have to wonder what the infant mortality rate is among the Uygur population in the so-called "Autonomous Region" today. I would be shocked if it is lower than 40%, as a genocide is actively being carried out by the Chinese Central Government to eliminate the Uygurs from "Chinese" territory once and for all time. The same thing is taking place in Tibet, too. And we all just turn a blind eye. Must keep those U.S. dollars flowing into China after all. We all want those cheap Walmart goods, don't we. The CEOs of American companies who have outsourced production of consumer goods to China pocket the difference, of course; no such thing as "trickle down to shareholders" anymore, and anyone who thinks otherwise is either extremely naive or extremely stupid, or both. Ha!

Anyway, all we have to do is look right here to the early days of the settling of North America by colonists. Entire colonies were wiped out by starvation and disease. Bet the infant mortality rate in thoe colonies was a lot higher than 40%. The ancient peoples in some ways were much more civilized than we were, then, and we are, today.

This is one of the most engaging pieces of sculpture I've ever seen, regardless of age! This piece just speaks to me, somehow. Prior posts on this exquisite mammoth ivory carving at the Goddesschess blogspot:

Work carved from mammoth ivory has been redated and 1,000 new fragments discovered—but it won’t make it to British Museum show

By Martin Bailey. Web onlyPublished online: 31 January 2013

The star exhibit initially promised for the British Museum’s “Ice Age Art” show will not be coming—but for a good reason. New pieces of Ulm’s Lion Man sculpture have been discovered and it has been found to be much older than originally thought, at around 40,000 years. This makes it the world’s earliest figurative sculpture. At the London exhibition, which opens on 7 February, a replica from the Ulm Museum will instead go on display.

The story of the discovery of the Lion Man goes back to August 1939, when fragments of mammoth ivory were excavated at the back of the Stadel Cave in the Swabian Alps, south-west Germany. This was a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War. When it was eventually reassembled in 1970, it was regarded as a standing bear or big cat, but with human characteristics. [Hint: Shaman.]

The ivory from which the figure had been carved had broken into myriad fragments. When first reconstructed, around 200 pieces were incorporated into the 30cm-tall sculpture, with about 30% of its volume missing.

Further fragments were later found among the previously excavated material and these were added to the figure in 1989. At this point, the sculpture was recognised as representing a lion. Most specialists have regarded it as male, although paleontologist Elisabeth Schmid controversially argued that it was female, suggesting that early society might have been matriarchal. [Oh please, just because this may be a carving of a female lion does not mean the society was "matriarchal." Geez!]

The latest news is that almost 1,000 further fragments of the statue have been found, following recent excavations in the Stadel Cave by Claus-Joachim Kind. Most of these are minute, but a few are several centimetres long. Some of the larger pieces are now being reintegrated into the figure.

Conservators have removed the 20th-century glue and filler from the 1989 reconstruction, and are now painstakingly reassembling the Lion Man, using computer-imaging techniques. “It is an enormous 3D puzzle”, says the British Museum curator Jill Cook.

The new reconstruction will give a much better idea of the original. In particular, the back of the neck will be more accurate, the right arm will be more complete and the figure will be a few centimetres taller.

An imaginative sculptor

Even more exciting than the discovery of new pieces, the sculpture’s age has been refined using radio-carbon dating of other bones found in the strata. This reveals a date of 40,000 years ago, while until recently it was thought to be 32,000 years old. Once reconstruction is completed, several tiny, unused fragments of the mammoth ivory are likely to be carbon dated, and this is expected to confirm the result.

This revised dating pushes the Lion Man right back to the oldest sculptures, which have been found in two other caves in the Swabian Alps. These rare finds are dated at 35,000 to 40,000 years, but the Lion Man is by far the largest and most complex piece. A few carved items have been found in other regions which are slightly older, but these have simple patterns, not figuration.

What was striking about the sculptor of the Lion Man sculptor is that he or she had a mind capable of imagination rather than simply representing real forms. As Cook says, it is “not necessary to have a brain with a complex pre-frontal cortex to form the mental image of a human or a lion—but it is to make the figure of a lion-man”. The Ulm sculpture therefore sheds further light on the evolution of homo sapiens. [This is utter nonsense. Humans has been making jewelry and other symbolic items, including cave paintings, rock carvings and free-standing carved or sculptured objects ever since they were created or first evolved -- take your pick of "theories," approximately 100,000 years ago.]

Conservators experimented by making a replica of Lion Man, calculating that it would take a highly skilled carver at least 400 hours using flint tools (two months’ work in daylight). This means that the carver would have had to be looked after by hunter-gatherers, which presupposes a degree of social organisation. There is an ongoing debate on what the Lion Man represents, and whether it is linked to shamanism and the spirit world. [Again, what nonsense! Who's to say that "Lion Man" (Woman) was carved by its maker over a two-month period of time? What if it was done by firelight at night, over a period of several years? Put away during the summer and only worked on during the long cold winter nights? The truth is, no one knows how long it took or what the gender was of the person who carved this piece. All we know for sure is where it was found and what it was made from. For my part, I think it was carved by a female who had probably raised a lion cub after the mother was killed for food, and she carried the carving to the cave where it was eventually found after she left her schmuck of a husband for a hunkier cave man. Geez!]

Initially, it was hoped that the original of the Lion Manwould be presented at the British Museum’s exhibition, but this has not proved possible because conservators need further time to get the figure reconstructed as accurately as possible. The Ulm Museum now plans to unveil it in November.

Yes, it's all over now. The top-rated ladies did, overall, rather well this year. Once again Stefanova, top finisher female, proved that she still has the goods. The big winner was a male, and the rest I'm reporting are chess femmes. 247 players in this Masters Event. I apologize to any femmes I may have omitted. It is vey difficult to try to differentiate the gender of players when the names used are not within my limited "western" realm of familiarity and I do not want to spend all night at Fide.com looking up names. Organizers could solve this problem quite simply by writing either F or M next to a player's name. One would think for any successful tournament the organizers would want such information. Ha, who am I kidding?

Updated February 3, 2013: Oops! I thought that Stefanova was the top female winner, but I was wrong. Good thing for double-checks, because tonight darlings, I discovered that it was GM Zhao Xue who took top female honors by finishing overall in 13th place, and kudos to her for doing so well in a VERY tough field. See what I mean about not recognizing non-western style player names? Didn't recognize Zhao Xue as a female player. Should have, but didn't.

In the Old City of Jerusalem,
no one ever went broke underestimating the proof required to help the faithful
suspend disbelief — or in a modern twist, allow the skeptical to bolster their
heterodoxy. A million-dollar lawsuit in Israel has become the latest vehicle
in the unending quest to redefine faith as the substance of things seen.

Simcha Jacobovici, a Canadian documentary maker specializing in biblical
archaeology, is suing a retired scientist and former archaeological museum
curator named Joe Zias, who has accused him of publicizing scientifically
dubious theories. Many of Jacobovici’s documentaries have focused on artifacts
that purport to reveal new interpretations of early Christianity, including the
notion that the remains of Jesus and his family were buried in a tomb underneath
modern-day Jerusalem. Jacobovici claims that Zias’ criticisms are libelous and
have cost him television contracts and money.

The dusty world of biblical archaeology directly affects — not to say
inspires — the hopes and dreams of millions of faithful people who might buy
purported relics or tune in to television shows about them. And, so, there has
arisen around it a thriving industry in Jesus-era coins and lamps, and
pre-Christian Judaica such as seals and seal impressions from the era of the
biblical kings — and in books and movies about them.
The son of Romanian holocaust
survivors, Jacobovici is an Emmy-winning journalist who has produced several
films in the past decade about new finds that supposedly illuminate the true
history of early Christianity. Jacobovici’s first foray into the
biblical-documentary genre was a 2002 film James, Brother of Jesus that
introduced the world to the James ossuary, a bone box with an ancient Aramaic
inscription translated as James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. Even as
Jacobovici’s film characterized the ossuary as an authentic archaeological
discovery, scholars and the Israeli authorities claimed the inscription as a
fake. Discovery Channel aired the film but, in 2008, it put the James ossuary on
its list of the top 10 scientific hoaxes of all time. Last year, after an
eight-year trial about biblical-relic forgery for profit, a judge acquitted two
defendants of fraud (one of them had been accused of faking the inscription) but
declined to rule on the alleged forgery itself.

Jacobovici then made a film about the so-called Talpiot Tomb — named after
the Jerusalem neighborhood where it was excavated — contending that 10 ossuaries
found inside it had held the bones of Christ and his immediate family, including
Mary Magdalene. That project had backing from Hollywood’s James Cameron, the
director of Titanic and Avatar. Jacobovici then produced
Nails of the Cross, a show that claimed that iron spikes excavated by
the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) from a tomb in Jerusalem in 1990 were the
very nails used to pin the Saviour to the cross. Nails of the Cross
aired on Israeli TV and the History Channel.

In all this Zias, 71, has emerged as Jacobovici’s nemesis. Retired from his
job as a professional anthropologist, he now makes a living guiding bike tours
around the Israeli countryside. He knows the murky world of biblical-relic
trading as well as anyone, having spent 25 years working for the IAA, the tiny
Israeli agency charged with overseeing excavations in 30,000 archaeological
sites. He lives in a three-room house in central Jerusalem with his wife and
daughter. He says he can’t afford to pay the lawyer he’s hired to defend him and
claims he is on the verge of bankruptcy because of the suit.

Zias is well known among Near East archaeologists for blasting cranky e-mails
from his blog, Science and Archaeology Group, accusing filmmakers and writers of
“pimping off the Bible.” He routinely writes Jacobovici’s first name with a
dollar sign in place of the S. Born in Michigan, he moved to Israel in
the 1960s. He told me he was first motivated to expose fakery in the
biblical-relic world when he was curating archaeology for the IAA and was
approached by a pair of American pastors from the Midwest who complained that
their flocks were being routinely fleeced by charlatans collecting money to
search underneath the stones of Jerusalem for tangible proof of Bible accounts —
like Christ’s DNA.

The contentiousness between Zias and Jacobovici came to a head in 2011. That
year, National Geographic pulled out of a Jacobovici project on another early
Christian relic that Zias and others were criticizing — comments that the
filmmaker cites as part of the reason for his lawsuit. Reached by e-mail,
Jacobovici said he is suing Zias — and not his academically affiliated critics —
because Zias “crossed the line from fair comment to outright libel.
Specifically, he has accused me repeatedly — verbally and in writing — of
‘forging archaeology’ … a criminal activity, and no free society allows you to
accuse people of such activities, unless you can prove that what you are saying
is correct. Furthermore, he has accused me of ‘planting archaeology.’ Again,
free discourse does not include libelous statements such as this one.”

The other critics, however, have not exactly been soft in their commentary
about Jacobovici’s work. A panel of academic experts had also assailed the basis
for the film about the so-called Jonah ossuary. The film, The Jesus Discovery,
which eventually aired on the Discovery Channel in 2012 and also was published
as a book, contends that the ossuary, found in a tomb underneath a Jerusalem
apartment building, is the earliest known example of an object bearing a
Christian symbol referring to the resurrection. The chairman of Duke
University’s Religion Center for Jewish Studies, Eric M. Meyers, said of
Jacobovici’s claims about the National Geographic pullback: “I was on the
advisory panel of experts assessing the integrity of the claims, the
appropriateness of the report and the controversial claims about the tomb in
which the Jonah ossuary was found, and the panel unanimously agreed not to
recommend that the project and film go forward.”

Meyers, who is Jewish, told me he was troubled by the implication in much of
Jacobovici’s work that there was no resurrection. According to Meyers,
Jacobovici has claimed to have some of the bones of Jesus and his family, their
DNA from ossuaries. “If the remains were reburied, then there could not have
been any true resurrection,” Meyer adds. “You do not make scientific
announcements of this potential significance in sensational films or in a trade
book that has unsubstantiated and controversial claims in it.”

Zias’ Israeli lawyer Jonathan Tsevi told TIME that Zias never accused
Jacobovici of criminal acts. “Joe never used the terms forging
archaeology or planting archaeology, although in essence this is
the method Simcha is repeatedly using,” Tsevi said in an e-mail. Zias has also
taken Jacobovici to task for using CGI to enhance images of an amphora in the
Jerusalem tomb he believes is engraved with the first image of the Christian
fish symbol. Jacobovici makes no apology for that. “I don’t think any judge is
going to accept that using CGI to enhance a photograph is tantamount to ‘forging
archaeology,’” he wrote.

The bitter legal battle has also come up with a holocaust angle — albeit a
rather convoluted one. “Most painful is [Zias’] accusation that I have ‘invented
Holocaust stories’” Jacobovici tells TIME. “I am the child of Holocaust
survivors.” Jacobovici is apparently referring to an event at a 2007 academic
conference in Jerusalem, at which an award was presented to the widow of an IAA
employee and Holocaust survivor named Joseph Gat. The woman said Gat knew he had
found the Jesus family tomb under a Jerusalem apartment building but never told
anyone about it during his lifetime for fear of Christian retribution over
evidence that defies Christian beliefs about Christ’s
immortality.

Zias, who worked with Gat, said Gat never mentioned the Jesus tomb to anyone
at the IAA and wasn’t trained to make such an identification in the first place.
“He never published one article in his long years with the IAA,” Zias says. “He
was a simple but honest guy … who could not read inscriptions, but now that he’s
deceased, was the one person chosen to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award
for the ‘secret he took to his grave.’” Zias has charged that the award and Mrs.
Gat’s comments were orchestrated by Jacobovici as part of an ongoing media
spectacle. Jacobovici denies that: “I have to tell you, in Israel, accusing
people of “inventing Holocaust stories” touches a very, very raw nerve … I think
the judge will throw the book at him.”

What kind of evidence will be presented in court? Jesus and his disciples are
unlikely to be coming forward to explain whether they had anything at all to do
with all those nails, tombs, ossuaries and other bits of ancient history
underneath Jerusalem. American biblical scholar James West, who also blogs on
biblical archaeology, said of the lawsuit: “Disagreements are fine, but
vendettas (which is what this seems to one outside the proceedings) are
improper. Perhaps Zias and Jacobovici should settle their differences the
old-fashioned way — in a public debate. Scholars disagree all the time, and they
can get quite nasty at it. But I have never once heard of a scholar suing
another scholar because their work was eviscerated.”

Monday, January 28, 2013

Twenty-six thousand years ago in the Czech Republic, one of our ice-age ancestors selected a hunk of mammoth ivory and carved this enigmatic portrait of a woman - the oldest ever found. By looking at artefacts like this as works of art, rather than archaeological finds, a new exhibition at the British Museum in London hopes to help us see them and their creators with new eyes.

(Image: Moravian Museum, Anthropos Institute)

Human ancestors date back millions of years, but the earliest evidence of the human mind producing symbolic imagery as a form of creative expression cannot be much older than 100,000 years. That evidence comes from Africa: this exhibition explores the later dawning of representative art in Europe and shows thateven before the remarkable paintings of the Lascaux cave, France, humans were able to make work as subtle as the expressive face above.

"By looking at the oldest European sculptures and drawings we are looking at the deep history of how our brains began to store, transform and communicate ideas as visual images," says Jill Cook, the show's curator. "The exhibition will show that we can recognise and appreciate these images. Even if their messages and intentions are lost to us, the skill and artistry will still astonish the viewer."

Cook points to a figurative 23,000-year-old mammoth ivory sculpture from Lespugue, France, which is also in the exhibition. It so fascinated Pablo Picasso with its cubist qualities that he kept two copies of it. "This figure demonstrates a visual brain capable of abstraction, the essential quality needed to acquire and manipulate knowledge which underpins our ability to analyse what we see," says Cook.

The question foremost in my mind after I read this article and examined the carving was "how do they know this is a woman?" And, guess I'm not alone. So, I typed my comment/question and submitted it, before reading what anyone else said about this carving. Lo and behold, most of the other commenters were wondering the same thing. Five of the six comments at the time asked the same question I did - how do you know it's a woman?

Is it because many of the earliest ivory carvings that archaeologists have discovered are of well endowed, rotund faceless females? Is it because of the sort of female feline look to the face? It almost looks like a blend between a female feline and a human woman -- like a creature caught between two worlds. And just when did felines and females become identified, so much so that even today there are slang/gross sexual terms for females and certain parts of the female anatomy that allude to the feline? But in many cultures in later times men were often identified with lions and tigers, so -- who knows? Is it because of the "hairdo," that looks like a woman with her hair pinned up with a "bun" on top? But it could just as easily be a depiction of a hat, cap or headdress and how would we know?

I was thinking it's someone who lost an eye! Perhaps a "hunter?" After looking and looking, I don't see any indication that the eye on the right side (looking at the image) was damaged somehow over the years. It looks like it was deliberately placed lower than the eye on the left, the eyebrow -- if that is an eyebrow -- is shaped a lot differently than the one on the left of the image, and it appears there is no iris, unlike the eye that is shaped on the left.

The thing is, we have no fricking idea what the culture/life of people who lived 26,000 years ago was like in the land we today call the Czech Republic. We should not be projecting our gender and cultural biases on this carving.

As for what this carving reveals about the mind of the person who carved it - that's just a joke. I've no idea, and anyone who says otherwise is just guessing. I mean, really! Why can we not appreciate these artifacts for their beauty and amazing stories of actually having survived all this time, against all odds, instead of trying to inject more into and upon them? Geez!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Observers say work on the Goguryeo stele is an attempt to incorporate it into Chinese history By Park Min-hee, Beijing correspondent

China continues its closed research into a recently unearthed Goguryeo stele, or memorial stone, that is attracting interest as the second Gwanggaeto Stele. The Hankyoreh confirmed that the research team includes a large number of scholars who took part in the Northeast Project, which was controversial for its distortions of Goguryeo history.

Goguryeo was one of the three kingdoms of ancient Korea, along with Baekjae and Silla. Parts of its territory are in present day North Korea, North eastern China and Russian Far East.

Officials in the city of Ji’an in Jilin Province, northeast China, where the new Goguryeo stele was discovered, assembled a guidance team for protection and study of the gravestone. The research team, according to an announcement posted recently by Ji’an’s Cultural Administration on a local government website, includes Wei Cuncheng, professor at Jilin University; Geng Tie-hua, professor at Tonghua Academy of Education; Zhang Fu-you, scholar of Jilin Province literature and history; Xu Jian-xin, academic advisor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Sun Ren-jie, curator of the Ji’an Museum; and Wang Zhi-min, a member of the Jilin Province Cultural Relics Evaluation Committee.

Wei Cun-cheng, who is regarded as a leading scholar on the history of Goguryeo and Balhae and the southern and northern dynasties period in China, was one of the key figures of the Northeast Project, and he was also a member on that project’s expert committee.

Geng Tie-hua is an expert on the history of Goguryeo, and he is also noted for his participation in the Northeast Project. In China, he is considered to be an exceptional scholar in the area of Goguryeo history, and he has published various works including one that asks the question of which country the history of Goguryeo belongs to. He also published a book titled The Ceremonial Rites of Gwanggaeto the Great in 2003, which came out of the historians’ work on the Northeast Project.

The other scholars on the research team were also involved with the project, either directly or indirectly, reports indicate.

Concerns are being raised that, with key figures from the Northeast Project taking part in the research, it is very likely that China will use the results of the study of the new Goguryeo stele to reinforce its argument that Goguryeo belongs to China. Earlier this month, a journal on Chinese culture published by China’s Administration of Cultural Heritage discussed archaeological research on the Goguryeo stele. The report said that the discovery is most significant because it reveals a connection between Goguryeo and China. The Northeast Project is part of an ongoing effort by the Chinese government to incorporate all of the history that unfolded inside the borders of present-day China into Chinese history. By isolating Goguryeo from the history of the Korean peninsula and declaring that it is part of Chinese history, China has triggered a fierce historical debate with South Korea.

This Goguryeo stele is the third to be discovered, following the Gwanggaeto Stele and the Goguryeo Stele in Chungju. Amid appraisals describing it as the next Gwanggaeto Stele, it is attracting a large amount of attention. The stele, which appears to have been constructed around the same time as the Gwanggaeto Stele (around 414 CE), was discovered last July in Maxian in Ji’an, but the discovery was not announced until the beginning of January 2013.

The new Goguryeo stele is being stored at the Ji’an Museum, reports have confirmed. In a phone interview with the Hankyoreh on Jan. 25, a museum official said, “We are continuing to research the Goguryeo Stele here at the museum.”

The Ji’an Museum is now temporarily closed due to renovations, and no visitors are being allowed inside. The museum official said that they would not be accepting any requests for reporting by the press before the museum reopens in May 2013.

Photo, right: The Goguryeo stele, or memorial stone, was unearthed last year in Northeast China announced earlier this month. A closed team of Chinese researchers has been assembled to establish a link between China and all the historical events that took place within its present-day borders.

Excavation work during construction of a new subway network in Greece's second largest city has discovered an ancient wreath made of gold that was buried with a woman some 2,300 years ago.

Archaeologists say Friday's find in Thessaloniki occurred on the site of an ancient cemetery in the west of the northern port city. A total 23,000 ancient and medieval artifacts have been found during archaeological excavations connected with the construction since 2006. Archaeologist Vassiliki Misailidou said the olive branch wreath made of gold was buried in a simple, box-shaped woman's grave. It dates to the late 4th or early 3rd century B.C. Another eight golden wreaths were discovered in a single grave four years ago during subway work. The much-delayed construction project is expected to be finished in 2017.

Ancient artefacts thought to be early gaming pieces will have to be reclassified after new research which claims they were actually used to wipe bottoms.

The flat, disc-shaped Roman relics have been in the collection at Fishbourne Roman Palace in Chichester, West Sussex, since the Sixties. Up until now museum experts thought the items were used for early games like draughts, but an article in the British Medical Journal has now proposed that they have a very different function.

It is well publicised that Romans used sponges mounted on sticks and dipped in vinegar as an alternative to toilet paper.

Yet the idea these ceramic discs might also have been used for such personal hygiene is a revelation.
The broken pieces - known as 'pessoi', meaning pebbles - range in size from 1in to 4in in diameter and were excavated near to the museum in 1960.

Experts said these were game pieces -- pessoi. Turned out to be stones
used to scrape feces off one's butt.

It had been thought that they were chips used to play an ancient game, also known as 'pessoi', but research published last month in the BMJ drew from classical sources to present evidence that they were also used to clean up after going to the toilet.

Noting the ancient Greek proverb 'three stones are enough to wipe one's a***', Philippe Charlier, assistant professor in forensic medicine at the Raymond Poincaré University Hospital in Paris, points to archaeological excavations which have uncovered pessoi inside the pits of Greek and Roman latrines across the Mediterranean.

In one such dig in Athens, American archaeologists found a range of such pessoi 1.2-4in in diameter and 0.2-0.8in thick which, Professor Charlier wrote, were 're-cut from old broken ceramics to give smooth angles that would minimise anal trauma'.

Other evidence from the classical world has been passed down to us in the form of ceramics painted with representations of figures using pessoi to clean their buttocks.

According to Professor Charlier's article, the Greeks and Romans even inscribed some of their pessoi with the names of their enemies or others they didn't like. Thus everytime they went to the toilet they would literally be wiping their faecal matter on the names of hated individuals. Examples of such stones have been found by archaeologists bearing the names of such noted historical figures as Socrates, Themisthocles and Pericles, Professor Charlier reported.

Museum curator Dr Rob Symmons said: 'When pottery like this is excavated it is someone's job to wash it clean. So, some poor and unsuspecting archaeologist has probably had the delight of scrubbing some Roman waste off of these pieces. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that we could still find some further signs of waste or residue. 'However, these pottery pieces have no monetary value because we are essentially talking about items once used as toilet roll.

'The pieces had always been catalogued as as broken gaming pieces but I was never particularly happy with that explanation. But when the article produced the theory they were used to wipe people's bums I thought it was hilarious and it just appealed to me. I love the idea we've had these in the museum for 50 years being largely ignored and now they are suddenly engaging items you can relate to.'

Dr Charlier's research indicates that the use of such stones would have probably been rather hard on the rear ends of the ancients, and could have caused a variety of medical issues. [Gee, ya think?]
He suggests the abrasive texture of the pessoi could have led to skin irritation, mucosal damage, or complications of external haemorrhoids.

He wrote: 'Maybe this crude and satiric description by Horace in his 8th epode (1st century BC) — “an a*** at the centre of dry and old buttocks mimicking that of a defecating cow”— refers to complications arising from such anal irritation.'
Dr Symmons, who has been at the Fishbourne Roman Palace museum for seven years, added: 'We will obviously have to think about re-classifying these objects on our catalogue.

'But we hope the pieces will make people smile when they learn what they were used for. They would have probably been quite scratchy to use and I doubt they would be as comfortable as using toilet roll. But in the Roman era it was that or very little else.'

By MELISSA EDDYPublished: January 21, 2013

BERLIN — When Ludwig Borchardt first held the life-sized bust of the ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti in his hands 100 years ago, his immediate thoughts reflected a clear understanding of the magnitude of his discovery. “Really wonderful work,” he wrote in his diary immediately after unearthing the bust, now a star attraction at the Neues Museum here. “No use describing it, you have to see it.”

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Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Although the “life-sized painted bust of the queen, 47 centimeters (18.5 inches) high; with the blue wig cut straight on top, and garlanded by a ribbon half-way up,” as Borchardt went on to describe the head, has remained in German hands since its discovery 100 years ago last month, it has been the source of bitter disputes for nearly as long.

To mark the century since the Nefertiti took up residence in Berlin, an exhibition at the Neues Museum explores the short reign of the queen and her husband, the pharaoh Akhenaten, in the royal city they founded around 1346 B.C. Using hundreds of artifacts recovered by Borchardt and his team during the same excavation, “In the Light of Amarna” explores the artistry and craftsmanship of the era.

Equally important from a historical perspective, though tucked away in the lower level of the museum far from the Nefertiti, another part of the show examines the lore that surrounds the bust. Through archeological diaries, hand-drawn maps and sketches of the dig — and letters appealing to the Germans’ sense of morality about Nefertiti’s removal — various documents leave no doubt of Berlin’s position about who is entitled to keep the bust.

“The bust is without doubt rightfully in the ownership of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation,” Bernd Neumann, the minister for cultural affairs, said before the exhibition opened on Dec. 7. The foundation runs many of Berlin’s leading cultural organizations.

Just three years ago, Egypt’s chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, was claiming that Borchardt had swindled Egypt a century ago when he removed the bust from the country. The exhibition documents how — under the laws at the time that stipulated an equal division of all materials discovered — the bust was part of the Germans’ share, along with several hundred other artifacts.

Researchers said they believed that Borchardt was aware that the Frenchman who headed the Antiquities Service in Cairo, which was under French control from 1914 to 1936, was a philologist and had appeared to have weighted one group of findings more heavily with inscriptions. The other consignment consisted almost entirely of figures, including the Nefertiti. The French choose the group with the inscriptions.

Only after the bust was displayed in the Neues Museum in the 1920s did the magnitude of their loss become clear, initiating the first attempt to seek Nefertiti’s return. “Here is our point of view: The piece never should have left Egypt,” Pierre Lacau, then head of the Antiquities Service in Cairo, wrote to the German authorities in 1925. He urged the Germans to return the bust for “moral” reasons, and later offered two treasures from the Cairo Museum in exchange. The offer was rejected.

By 2009, Mr. Hawass had begun to raise questions about the bust’s removal from Egypt, writing letters to the cultural authorities in Berlin, who traveled to Cairo for discussions. The exchanges strained the cooperation on archeological and cultural issues between the countries to the point where Mr. Hawass turned down an invitation to attend the gala reopening of the newly renovated Neues Museum, which houses the Papyrus Collection and the Egyptian Museum, with Nefertiti as its star attraction.

The demands have petered out since the end of the Hosni Mubarak era in 2011. Concerns have shifted to safety issues at excavation sites around Egypt amid continuing turmoil around the country. “Since the election we have been to Cairo several times,” said Michael Eissenhauer, director of the State Museums of Berlin. “We have very good discussions and are seeking new avenues of cooperation.”

Excavations in the area around Amarna are leading to new discoveries. Dutch archeologists say they believe they have found evidence that Nefertiti, whose name means “The Beautiful One Has Arrived,” was still queen 16 years into her husband’s reign; many experts thought that she had died or had disappeared 12 years into his reign.

The limestone and plaster bust — with its elegantly arched neck and eyebrows, chiseled cheekbones and mysterious smile — has tiny, fine lines around her eyes, a hint that she lived to be a mature woman. A later likeness includes heavier lines around her eyes and mouth.

The items in the exhibition reflect Amarna in her lifetime as enlightened and peaceful. The works include faience jewelry, ceramic vases delicately painted with light blue flowers, and tiles decorated with birds and fish. A limestone relief shows Nefertiti as her husband’s equal, sitting face-to-face with him, surrounded by their daughters.

Many of the objects in the exhibition, which runs through April 13, are on display for the first time since Borchardt brought them back to Berlin.

In defending Berlin’s position on refusing to give up the bust, Mr. Neumann stressed the importance of allowing such treasures to remain available for research and study of all those who are interested. “Instead we should make clear that such a work of art belongs to a universal, global cultural heritage of a people, regardless of where it is,” Mr. Neumann said. “It should be made available to as many people as possible.” [And not highjacked by the Islamists now in power in Egypt. You can bet your sweet bippy that the second they got their hands on it, it would be swapped for a plaster of paris look-alike that would be placed into the Cairo Museum under heavy guard and the REAL Nefertiti would be sold for countless millions, maybe even a billion, on the illegal antiquities market.]

A version of this article appeared in print on January 22, 2013, in The International Herald Tribune.

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"Advanced Chess" Leon 2002

About Me

I'm one of the founders of Goddesschess, which went online May 6, 1999. I earned an under-graduate degree in history and economics going to college part-time nights, weekends and summer school while working full-time, and went on to earn a post-graduate degree (J.D.) I love the challenge of research, and spend my spare time reading and writing about my favorite subjects, travelling and working in my gardens. My family and my friends are most important in my life. For the second half of my life, I'm focusing on "doable" things to help local chess initiatives, starting in my own home town. And I'm experiencing a sort of personal "Renaissance" that is leaving me rather breathless...